After the pandemic years, when workers had the upper hand in imposing telecommuting and work-life balance, there’s a slight swing of the pendulum back in the employer’s court, and they’re doing a poor job of hiding their impatience to see a return to “business as usual”. Here’s our mid-year HR roundup for a better understanding of the workforce issues facing companies.
1. Bringing people back to the office
Last March, Korem founder Sébastien Vachon took a very clear stance in favor of bringing his employees back to the office.
We’re always talking about those who don’t want to come back to the office, but very little about those who need a work environment,” he explained at an annual meeting in front of a hundred employees. Those who have been with us for a long time,” he added, “I asked them to remember why they stayed. It’s because there were colleagues, because it was fun and there were mentors. Now, how do you do that, everyone at home, camera closed? Some people are so focused on their own needs that they forget about the good of the organization.”
It sets the tone. And the Quebec City entrepreneur is not alone in his desire for employees to return to the office in part or in full. Elon Musk has ordered a presence in the office coupled with total commitment on the part of his employees, or else “out! Since April, Google has been requiring three days a week in the office.
There’s more and more talk of returning to the office,” notes Annie Boilard, CHRP, founder of Réseau Annie RH. However, returning to the office 5 days a week is not the recommended approach. Dialogue and exchange based on employees’ needs and business requirements are more appropriate. What’s more, the hybrid approach remains the most widespread: companies can review the ratio of face-to-face and virtual days as needed.”
2. Retention
Despite companies’ determination to regain pre-pandemic operational fluidity, it seems that employees, for their part, are increasingly dissatisfied and volatile. The “retention” challenge is therefore immense:
I myself left my former employer, even though he was a golden boss,” says Marie-Michèle, a talent acquisition consultant who asked us not to mention her surname. We’ve had over 10 departures in 6 months, and that’s really affected me. I want to feel part of a family, and that’s a big challenge in terms of human resources. I don’t think companies have been able to adjust to the move to telecommuting, in order to maintain a sense of belonging.”
3. Work-life balance
Of course, retention depends on creating a sense of belonging to the organization. But we can also ask whether employers are doing enough to support their employees in balancing work and family. Julie Tremblay-Potvin, President of De Saison and Isarta trainer, has her doubts:
My hypothesis is that, despite the good will, and the fact that we’re talking about it more, that we’re saying ‘yes yes, reconciliation’, ‘yes yes, disconnection’, in reality, there’s still an overload of work that overflows schedules and makes work inefficient. There are too many files open at the same time, and it’s mentally tiring. Few organizations have figured out how to make working in hybrid mode really satisfying,” analyzes the consultant in innovation, work culture and sustainable health.
4. Talent and skills shortage
On the employer side, the focus is on inflation and economic recovery. Yet, in both cases, the challenge for companies remains the same: they need to find people with the talent and skills to solve their business problems. In recent months, the shortage of manpower has given rise to a “new” HR strategy known as “quiet hiring”, which Gartner has identified as one of the top HR trends for 2023.
The novelty is essentially in the name. Basically, it’s a matter of relying on internal resources to meet a company’s needs: by increasing the mobility of people towards positions that match their skills, by training employees with skills shortages, and by using contract workers on an ad hoc basis to fill specific needs.
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